Longtime and prolific Hemmings Daily reader and commenter Greg Gjerdingen is just coming to the end of his term as president of his local car club, the Willmar Car Club, but he’s also still serving as Car Show Chairman for the club and wanted to see what we thought about car show awards formats:
The Willmar Car Club has had annual car show since 1981. It has evolved into several trophy categories. There has been input from some club members to change to a Top 50 (40, 60 or whatever) format. Although I like sports and muscle cars, I always strive to provide exposure to all aspects of the automotive spectrum. Does Top ## help or discourage a wide variety of cars to participate in show? It would be interesting to see what experiences or ideas commenters would have. I am afraid that if we change formats it would be extremely difficult to rebuild the sponsorship required to put on a show with multiple classes.
What type of venue do people prefer: car show, cruise in, concours? Interesting things people have seen and enjoyed at a car event that added to the experience, stuff like that there, don’t cha know.
First off, props to the men and women around the country who give up their free time to put on car shows, regardless of the format. They bust their humps all year round for the love of cars, not only lining up the cars themselves, but also the advertising, the venue, the sponsorships, the hot dog vendor, the cadre of volunteers, and a million other details – and for their efforts, they get to deal with crybaby show participants and people who argue that the $5 entry fee is gonna bankrupt them.
Second, to answer Greg’s question generally, it all depends what the group organizing the show wants to accomplish with the show. Are they raising money for charity? Are they doing it for profit? Or are they just looking to get a bunch of cool cars in one place? Too many groups putting on car shows lose sight of their goals, especially after years of operation, and find themselves stuck with the burden of organizing a show rather than putting on a show for the fun of it. And riding on that advice, consider the audience as well – both participants and spectators. Are they a bunch of trophy hounds and tire polishers, or do they just want to set up some lawn chairs and talk cars with like-minded enthusiasts?
Personally, I think that most car shows break down the categories far too minutely and hand out too many awards. Sure, I understand how they got to that point – the regular Chevrolet guys get tired of the Corvettes always taking the Bowtie award, so they want the Corvette guys split off; the Model A owners want a category all to themselves; how exactly do you categorize a Chrysler TC by Maserati, oh well, let’s just give them their own section. But most shows are far too bound by strict categorization, model-year cutoffs and other attempts to label and organize the cars on the show field. And all those attempts – besides appearing a little Napoleon-ish – only facilitate exclusion and thus hurt the collector car scene in the long run.
If you have to stick with awards, I say stick with the ones that foster a sense of community – ones like People’s Choice, Hard Luck, and Youth Recognition – rather than ones that turn the show into a giant boiling competition.
But that’s just my opinion. Which car show awards format has worked best for the rest of you?
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